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Aryans did little to unify India & many cultures invaded
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Kushan

Persia, Greeks, Macedonians; Mac. soldiers refused to continue fighting once they reached
India, turned & left
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Section 2 –
New Indian
Empires
Mauryan

Veda s Gupta

Alexander the Great

Buddhist temple
Built during Mauryan

dynasty
Mauryan Dynasty (324 – 183 BC)
●Founded by Chandragupta Maurya, 321-301
BC
●Very centralized (king controlled); provinces ruled by governors; military & secret police
●Feared assassination
●Asoka, his grandson, ruled w/Buddhist philosophy ●Hospitals for ppl & animals; trees & shelters along road for travelers
●kingdom became a trade center; declined after his death

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Silk Road
Created @200BC – 1000AD
●From Changan, China to Antioch, Syria
●Transported only luxury goods b/c of danger, silk very popular
●4000 miles long
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Many kingdoms emerged on border of
India/Afghanistan (ancient Bactria)
●Kushan Kingdom 1 AD – 300 AD
●Mostly in north; prospered w/trade along the Silk Road
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Gupta Dynasty 320 AD
Strong in the north, had some control in central India
●Strong & efficient; prospered with trade outside and within kingdom
●Famous for temples, wealthy rulers th ●5 century – Huns invade
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Sun Temple in India, Gupta
Dynasty

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INDIAN CULTURE
LITERATURE:
Vedas – earliest literature, religious; oral, then written in Sanskrit
Mahabharata – 100 BC
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Ramayana
Story of ruler Rama
Full of religious morals & lessons
●Rama is ideal hero, ruler, and son
●Sita, his wife, is loyal to her husband
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90,000 stanzas about a war btwn cousins for control of the kingdom
Bhagavad Gita – sermon by god Krishna; tells a key point of Indian society: don’t worry about success or failure when taking action. be concerned w/moral rightness of act

ARCHITECTURE:
●Buddhism inspired many buildings
●3 main types:
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Pillar – mark sites related to Buddha’s life; 50 tons & 50 feet high
●Stupa – burial mounds that housed religious relics ●Rock chamber – carved out of cliffs; dwelling for monks and a place for ceremonies
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SCIENCE:
Great astronomers; knew